


Dead Wrong

by J93



Series: Attack on Titan Fics: Armin x Sasha [AruSasha] [9]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Universe, F/F, F/M, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-23
Updated: 2018-07-23
Packaged: 2019-06-15 07:06:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15407637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/J93/pseuds/J93
Summary: AruSasha Ship Week 2018 Day 1: First or LastArmin tells the story of how he and Sasha met.





	Dead Wrong

I first met her at a training camp, where she was caught eating a potato during our initiation. Instructor Shadis lost his shit and sent her to run until she dropped dead. She finally fell over after five hours. She was ordered not to have any food although Historia (or Krista then) sneaked her some bread and water. Her and Ymir helped her to the dining hall but there were just scraps left and soon Shadis ordered us to our bunks.

As we were being escorted to our male cabins, Eren (who was behind me) put something in my pocket. I put my hand inside. It was food, the end of a piece of baguette. “Somethin’ for later.” He whispered. Eren always did this for me. Before signing up, when we three were sleeping in barns, food was varied scarce and I was thinnest of our group. When we did come across food we preserve and ration it. Eren, however, would hand me something small to put on some fat otherwise I would never pass the physical exam.

Luckily, I did but I was pudgy and had little to no muscle. The next three years of my life was going to be hard and I had to work hard if I was going to survive a single day. Mikasa said she was going to join the gym in her free time and suggested I join her too. I didn’t give her an answer, not yet at least.

I quickly realized I needed to eat it quick. I couldn’t eat inside, I’ll get punished just like they did to the girl who eats the potato. I asked the escort if I could go to the toilet and he pointed me in the right direction. I walked toward the toilets and ran around and hide in the corner, away from the lights and in the shadows. Once I saw no one around I pulled the baguette out and it turned out to be a lot bigger than I thought. I ripped it in half and bit down hard on the first half, chewed it quickly and swallowed it as fast as I could. So fast I chocked, coughed and wheezed, bending over until I settled.

“ _Hey, blondie!_ ” I heard someone call from behind me.

I turned around, keeping the baguette in the shadows. I found a tall woman, who I later knew as Ymir, carrying Potato Girl under her wing. She looked tired and beat. Both of them were wearing white sleeping gowns and slippers.

Ymir was bored looking at me. She sighed, “Sasha here needs to take a pass or shit or somethin’ and I’m not dealing with that so I’m just going to leave you with her.” If I had the nerve, I was about to protest but Ymir was quick. “Look short stuff, I could care less what your gonna say or what you have behind your back. Just take care of this would ya? Thanks.”

Ymir pulled the woman’s arm off her shoulders and threw her on me as if she were a tired babysitter handing back the sleeping infant to the parent. “Just leave her on the porch and someone will find her.” I looked at the disheveled Sasha and back to Ymir, who shrugged. “Look blondie, I don’t make the rules. All girls club and no boys allowed.” She turned around and began to walk away. “Now if you excuse me I have a cutie waitin’ in my bunk, so… laters!”

Ymir waved herself away, leaving me with Sasha. Looking at her she seemed fine but her feet told a different story. They were blistered with tiny trickles of blood. Her slippers had fallen off somewhere along the way and gotten them dirty. I shoved my baguette in my pocket and aligned myself beside her, putting my arm on her back and under her shoulder. She wasn’t heavy nor light. She seemed out of it, her head slanted and staring off into the distance.

I took her by the jaw and made her face me. Her chestnut brown eyes dully stared at me. “Hey,” I said lamely “Your Sasha right?” She nodded. “My name is Armin.”

“I’m tired and my feet hurt.” She sullenly.

“Okay, I’ll help you over to the toilet and back, okay? Right here we go.”

I walked her over to the cubicle, opened and closed the door behind her and waited. I was checking my pocket when I heard the flush and stood back. I waited, and waited, and waited until I had to lean my ear against the door and give it a knock.

“Sasha? You all right in there?” No response and the door remained closed. “Do you need help?” I didn’t know what I was asking. I just said anything to get this night over with quickly. “Sasha?”

I heard a sniffling and a shuffle then the door suddenly pushed open, pushing me over and onto my ass. The poor girl saw what had happened and tried rushing over to me, only to fall on top of me, head-butting us in the process. I lay on the ground in a sore daze but it didn’t seem to affect her in any way.

“I’m so, so sorry! I-I didn’t mean t-to… I didn’t mean to…”

She cried between my feet. I got up and saw the mess she was in. She was hunched over, her head in her hands balling. I had to sort this out quickly before anyone took notice.

“Listen, it’s all right. It was an accident. I’m fine now.”

“I’m so useless! And stupid! I won’t make it here. Everyone knows that. I know that.”

“I don’t know that.” She looked at me funny. “It's your first day and mine. Everyone makes mistakes on their first day.” I told her. “You have three years to improve. All you have to do is… not eat a potato during a training exercise.” She smiled, just. “Tell you what. Give yourself until the end of tomorrow. Give your feet some rest and try and do what is asked of you. If you improve, everyone will notice. If you don’t think your cut out for this, well, there is the coach to take you back home. You wouldn’t be the only one. It's common for several people to drop out within the first week.”

She paused to think. “’kay.” We stood up together. Unless I was mistaken and the light was tricking me, I saw color return to her face. She noticed something. “What’s in your pocket?”

“Bread.”

“Bread?! What kind?”

“How about I tell you at the end?”

She pouted. “Damn it.”

“How are your feet?”

We both looked at her feet. They looked about the same and likely could’ve gotten worse if I didn’t have that brilliant idea pop into my head.

“How far is the cabin?”

“Oh, just over _there!_ ”

I put on my back. I hadn’t done it before and in my mind, the cabins weren’t far so I thought could manage her weight. Like I said before she wasn’t heavy nor light.

“Right, let’s get you back to bed,” I said a little strained.

It took two minutes to get there. By the end of it felt more like five. I only stopped to rest twice and those were to pick up her slippers she lost when Ymir was supposed to be taking care of her. Finally, after we arrived I settled her down on the steps of the cabin. As she put her slippers on I straightened my back. There were an audible click and a long groan. I saw the chestnut eyes and I reached into my pocket and gave her the baguette. I pressed my finger to my lips to keep her quiet. She mouthed her thanks and eat the bread. It was gone before I could blink. She said goodnight and went inside.

In the morning, we did our training in the forest and it involved doing our laps. I didn’t see her around until noon when I was the coach. I kept eye on it, watching those who couldn’t handle it jump in with their heads hanging down. I didn’t see her but the coach had been there for twenty minutes so I thought she could have been in the back. We all watched it go off in silence judgment.

“ _Looking for someone?_ ”

I spun in fright. It was her. “Sasha?”

“Hey!”

“Y-your staying?”

“Yep! For the long haul! And its all thanks to you, Armin.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” she sniffed the air. “Leak! One of my favorites... _Gottagobye!_ ”

She ran in the direction of the cafeteria hall and from then on I would be proved dead wrong in all my assumptions about Sasha Blouse.

Many thought she was a dunce who wouldn’t achieve anything in the military. But I, like many others, saw her rise to the Ninth place in the Top 10 and become a member of the Levi Squad. We all know the stories of her fighting a Titan with nothing but a bow and arrow or the infamous potato incident. But I know her for being a great fighter, a great friend, and comrade.

I believed in her, trusted her, loved her and I miss her.


End file.
